Life in prison for murderer who threw a 23-year-old man out of seventh-floor
A 37-year-old man has been found guilty of murdering 23-year-old Shaun Douglas Chabalala, who was thrown out of a seventh-floor window of a block of flats in central Pretoria in 2018.
Dumkele “Ekere” Onyeghani appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Monday, where he stood in the dock expressionless as the judgment was read out.
Magistrate Thembinkosi Ndwandwe started his judgment by going through the testimony of the State witnesses, followed by the version of the defence.
Ndwandwe accepted the version of Chabalala’s business partner, Given Mzamane, who was the only witness to the killing.
Mzamane testified that he and Chabalala had seen an online advert for a luxury camera that was being sold in Sunnyside.
They contacted the seller and they drove from Johannesburg to the Tamboti block of apartments in Sunnyside.
Once there, Onyeghani, who was at the entrance, greeted them and took them to his flat on the seventh floor.
As the two men entered the flat, they were met by two other men and attacked.
Mzamane managed to get away, but not before he witnessed two men throwing Chabalala out of the window.
Onyeghani pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances and contravening the Immigration Act. He is a Nigerian national.
Onyeghani claimed he was not at the flat on the day and that it was his flatmate who killed Chabalala.
His flatmate was arrested, but went missing after being released on bail in 2019.
Onyeghani`s version was rejected by the court, which took into account that he was identified within three seconds at an identity parade and that after the murder he went into hiding.
Police managed to track Onyeghani down to a house in Pretoria West through an informant.
When they tried to effect the arrest in October 2019, Onyeghani hid in the ceiling of the house, but was discovered after police brought the K9 unit in.
Ndwandwe found Onyeghani guilty of murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances and for being in the country illegally as his permit to reside in South Africa had expired long before his arrest.
Straight after judgment, the court listened to sentencing arguments and proceeded to sentence the accused to life imprisonment for murder and 15 years for the robbery charge.
For contravening the Immigration Act, Onyeghani was sentenced to 12 months behind bars wholly suspended on the condition that he is deported once he has served his sentence for the murder and robbery counts.
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